Got into a few flathead today fishing some drop offs in freo area this one went 52 next cast resulted in a massive run with big head shakes resulting in a bust off on a nearby pylon 50m away I was no match on 4lb 

 Hi Guys

I have been reading up all your cray fishing reports and it sounds like some are having an awsome time and some not so much. I personaly only use my pots when Im on holidays as I am just that bit to far from the water to drop and pull them regulary. So Iam a bit jealous.

One of the reports I have found is that there have been some Blue Ringed Octopus pulled up in there pots in the Northern suburbs of Perth. Just thought I would warn everyone to be careful out there

and maybe use a bit of PPE. As I have heard these can be nasty.

Cheers

 Headed out of Mindarie about 6am to pull the pots and was greeted with 7-8 boats lining up to come out of the water.  Launch lanes were still clear so good job to those coming in, and i assume then heading to work, in not being to impatient.

Pots were fairly loaded with a bag of 24 coming from 3 pots, 6 returned in the last pot. All a nice size with only 1 needing the guage run over it to check and i think these large crays are putting out my normally good eye for size. The small one was at least 3mm over..lol

As the wind was forcast, thanks seabreeze, to drop off we pulled up for a bit of a fish. Dropped the anchor and got some burley going but the bloody wind just seemed to pick up. Whiting were not around and after a little while i had to volinteer to pull the pick. Had the full signs of brekky heading the wrong way, sweats, burps, watery mouth. Bloody wind.

Headed into the shallows and tried again in much calmer conditions. Started the burley again and got into one of the hottest herring sessions that i have seen in a long time. Boated 20 in under 15min with 3 blokes going hard. 2 using bait and having a hard time trying to keep bait on the hooks and myself having the most amount of sucess i have ever had on soft plastics. Loved not having to rebait every cast and the plackies were good for about 4 fish before they were to chewed up.

The snook then came in and scared the herring off so we boated a stack of them to use as cray bait for our next trip out. Those mini barracuda sore the crap out of a pack of plastics pretty quick so i ended up using a little hardbodie until they chewed through the leader. 

As whiting was actually the target we moved again to clearer patch and tried again. Only 1 small whiting caught then released but managed 2 nice flathead just under 40cm on the softies before we called it a day.

All in all a great day with the big esky full of crays and the small one stacked with hezzas and cray bait... Oh and then the wind died off a bit just as we were washing the boat down..Lol

Jumped in with the go pro this morning to get some action shots of the pots coming up. Not bad for our first effort trying it underwater.

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Gents,

Just a quick and dirty report....

Just got back yesterday from a quick dash up to Steep

Left work at 4pm on Thursday,
Drove into Steep Friday morning and had a quick cast before sundown after setting up camp and a few drinks...
Saturday was our only full day of fishing.....
Sunday was a morning fish and in the arvo after plenty of sitting around talking about packing up, we packed up and drove out late arvo.
Back to perth late morning on Monday.

So all in all 2 half days and 1 full day fishing.

The reason for such a short trip, and not our usual 7-14 day trip, was may Mate's 11 year old son joined us and we weren't sure he'd cope with the location.

We ballooned and threw lures as normal, with a few hours bottom bashing to give our casting arms a rest.

To say we killed it I think is an understatement - we bagged out (all but a couple of kilos, that I'm very confident we would have got too if we'd fished the arvo of the last day, but we'd had our fill).

Our biggest session landed 7 mackies in very short succession, but the bites were consistent all day sat and continued sun morning - lost count of total mackies landed!

One of the guys from a diff group commented "you know your shit doesn't stink when you nail them in the tail" after I fouled hooked a decent sized Mackie after it smashed the bait, but didn't hook up, only to jagged itself in the tail.

+Biggest mack was over 30lb most were between 18-22lb

+++also landed a sailfish, and my mates 11 year old son caught his first Mackie (with not too much help) plus several bottom fish.

................insane few days to say the least.

+only lost 3 hooked fish (all at the gaff).
+NO SHARKS!!!
+NO FLYS!!!
+NO SUNBURN!!!
+and the wind blew the right way all but a few hours on Saturday mid-day.

Stars all lined up

+All mackies caught on balloon
+none caught on spin - if fact only got 3 hits on spin the whole time.

+Storm Gars and Snook used under the balloon.

Needed to get out of the house today so i took light gear out for a flick.  

Explored Belmont in search for bream, nothing.

Drove to Freshwater Bay and flicked around, nothing.

Drove to Cottesloe Groyne, onshore wind and 1/32oz jigheads dont mix.

Drove back towards Mosman, cruised around enjoying some of the twisty roads and marvelled at the big houses before stopping at a dead end.  I got out for a look then back in the car about to head home.  I motivated myself to turn around and at least get out and have one last go.  So i walked down and waded out just far enough to cast into the drop off.

Hmm, i've seen enough fishing on TV to know that i'm in flathead territory.....  Got past the blowies and found 2 nice flathead in a short session before i got the call to head home.  They went roughly 36 & 44cm

The second one went pretty hard and pulled some string!  Both fish released.  The first one for good karma, and second one was just too big and beautiful to kill.  Or you could say it earnt another life by putting up a good fight haha!  I'll probably regret it though, flathead are lovely on the chew.

I hardly finesse fish so i am very pleased with these two as my first metro fish on plastics!  Cant wait to get out and do it again now. Great fun on the light gear. 

A question for you fishing theorists out there, these were caught during a predicted time for activity, the 4-5pm moonrise period.  Coincidence, or is there a connection we can make??

5am,, probably a good 100 trailers already in the carpark

Dive no. 3 this season on the James Service prior to lunch, have been giving this spot a hiding but given it was blowing 15+knots from the North stuck to producing ground. Crays were a bit touchy. But on a positive side had a solid Baldchin that seems to be local, following us and was eating legs off crays at will, run my spear gun tip up and down his side a few times to let him know the 15th is coming but not sure if I can shoot him but things might change come the end of the demersal ban . Then again he might be gone with the whites. Ended up with ten, but seemed to be less in 15m than last week. Didn't get the bag but still a good day when your underwater. Very cool to see quality fish in heavily fished ground.

 Got one quota from one pot today off james Services. All good size whites in about 12 mtrs

Waited for the wind to back off this morning and shot down to Mandurah for a dive in the tinny.

Out to the 3 mile to a spot we have been getting our bag at for the last few weeks just as the breeze stopped.

Got our bag in one dive of nice size whites. Still plenty in shallow, but unfortunally think Iv'e done an ear drum so could be all over for a while for me.

Anyways crew get into them, they're on.

 Because it was going to be such a nice day we decided to head out from Mindarie to check the pots.

No surprise that we were the only car in the carpark.  Pulled 3 pots and got 10 nice whites. No reds, undersize or tar spots.

I have to admit that was on my top 5 worst conditions ever volintairaly going out in a boat. Even in the 20m+ areas we had a skipper on the controls as it was needed. I have to admit pulling on my own completely knackered me but getting a nice feed will make it worth while.

Dived this Morning with Boydy and another mate, single dive with a 9am Carona to thank the fish gods. Was glassy to about 0930, depth 13 m, potters should see some action any time now. Vis was pretty ordinary.

Headed out this morning hoping to target some king George in my favourite area in 34 metres of water wide of garden island.  

Intended using a technique I saw in Westernport a few weeks ago, two snooded size 2's on light line droppers and squid rings (yes rings) for bait.  Rings cut only 5mm wide.

Out early and was as flat as, no breeze, didn't need the sea anchor 

First drop, still rigging the second rod and the first screams off ......hell that ain't a KG, long and gentle fight with the light gear and a large dhuie swims up to the boat, dropped it when it did a sudden dive as it neared the hull but no matter as I couldn't keep it anyway.  Second drop, still rigging the other rod and off it goes again, drag screaming but I accept lightly set given the light gear.....good fight and a horse baldie appears, quick unhook and away it swam which shows the advantage on light gear and gentle fight, no barotrauma at all in evidence.

then the ROT set in, despite the small baits the bronzies came on, it was bloody ridiculous, got 5 to the side and cut them off, all around 1200mm like peas out of a pod, lost at least another 7 more, got sick if rerigging so pulled stumps at 9.30

Is it me or are these toothy critters fast reaching plague proportions ?

 Got a good surprise this morning with 6 good size crays in one pot. First crays of the season after spending $600 they tasted farken good ayyy. Has anyone else had any luck. 

 Should mention that Jewfish was the only thing I wanted to catch in broome. We are moving to Gero after this to start the next adventure. 

Anyone know if much about in these spots at the moment?

Cheers Mal.

 Went diving both yesterday morning and this morning off beach to see if there was any crays around the Cottelsoe area.

Have had some success in past.

Yesterday at some usual ground was a bit murky still managed to find a few. Albeit my coordination being appalling. Lost a few within grasp plus I needed the long snare.

There were a few whites about also. Crays were very deep under ledges with no intention of being relocated. Quite a few kakkas yesterday. Managed one white cray not soft but not completely firm.

Saw a very large tailor apporox 750/800 small dhufish approx 400. Also

Dived slightly further north of yesterday's dive for a grand total of one this morning. A few crays around but different ground. Crays all very deep even with long snare was difficult to reach. Did not see any whites.

Some small baldies no bigger than 200 mooching about. Both dives many any blue drummer fish being territorial. 

Have set challenge to not dive same location more than once for this cray season

https://www.facebook.com/137554444720/videos/10153748530644721/

If anyone knows who this is call crime stoppers or phone the complete angler and camping world rockingham.

Low life scum.

Got out the other day off the south coast in the tinny and the conditions were perfect!

Had a great day catching Queenies, Nannis, Harlies and a nice big dhu which came in at about 12KG at a shewed estimate. Called it for a big Blue all the way up seeing as they are more common down there but got a pleasant surprise when silver showed.

Fishing was was slow but between us we landed 5 demersals and got a good feed for a long trip.

The boat is paying for itself already!

Goodie :)

When I'm dreaming
Well I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna dream of life list trophy fish like you



When I planning
Yeah I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who plans the route for you



When exploring
Well I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who fish new place with you





When I tripping
Well I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who drives all day with you



But I would drive five hundred miles
And I would drive five hundred more
Just to be the man who drive a thousand miles
To come knock at your door

When I kayak
Yes I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the friend who kayaks hard with you



It's gonna be wet
Yes I know it's gonna be
We're gonna be soaked head to toe through and through



But if I get cold
I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the wife who tough it out with you





As we're waiting
It is so hard to contain
I'm gonna be excited just as much as you





But I would drive five hundred miles
And I would drive five hundred more
Just to be the man who drive a thousand miles
To come knock at your door

Tadalada Tadalada Taladaladalada Taladalala
Tadalada Tadalada Taladaladalada Taladalala

I have found fish
Well I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the guide who share the fun with you



When you're hooked up
Well I know that I'm ready
To capture every fighting moment for you









If you triumph
I'll let them know and they will hear
I'm gonna yell "congrats", "hell yeah" and "woohoo"















When we look back
I am certain that we will see
We'll see this crazy group who loves to fish with you



But I would fish five hundred miles
And I would fish five hundred more
Just to be the man who fish the world
Who may just come back for more

Shortnose Sturgeon (Acipenser brevirostrum) - Species #476



Eli, Ken, Michael and George would like to thank Joe Tilley for his great hospitality and a fantastic time, and Alisha (Eli's wife) for being our professional photographer.

Day 1:

Eli: 3 Shortnose
Ken: 4 Shortnose
Michael: 4 Shortnose
George: 3 Shortnose
Joe: 2 Shortnose

Day 2:

Eli: 1 Shortnose lost :(
Ken: 0 Shortnose :( (only fished half day)
Michael: 4 Shortnose
George: 1 Shortnose lost :( (only fished half day)
Joe: 4 Shortnose

***

Additional bonus new lifer:

Saithe (Pollachius virens) aka Pollock - Species #475



Additional tasty morsel (but very annoying anti-sturgeon bait thieves):

Atlantic Tomcod (Microgadus tomcod)

Crew dived the James Service off Mandurah today, although not big the new swell had a bit of pulse, 1 short of the bag in 10m. Good Dhu and Baldie showing themselves off knowing the ban is in place

Made the trek down to the Warren River yesterday for a bit of a arvo session chasing reddies in the kayak. Put in at Draftys camp along heartbreak trail around 3pm and headed upstream to begin with. An absolute awesome looking river with deep sections, a huge amount of structure with fallen trees and rocks so the anticipation was high. Just as we started fishing the sky opened up and it proceeded to belt down for the next 20 minutes saturating us in the process, not a great start! Flicked sx40's, rmg's, laser pro's and rapala CD1's in all colours for the next hour on the juiciest looking snags for zero interest with not so much as a follow. Tried a celta spinner and had one follow from a nice trout after 20 minutes but nothing else. paddled further to a deep snag and jigged zman grubs in pumpkin seed and pink with again no interest!! I was astounded to say the least that after 4hrs fishing between two of us we saw no redfin and just the one trout!
I'll put it down to one of those days as the weather was turning for the worse and the fish just weren't on. On the bright side it still beat the shit out of working, floating down a beautiful river with great scenery and the birds chirping away. I'm definitely keen to get back down there and explore some more of the river that just looks so fishy and hopefully have some better luck.

Got a nice feed of kidney slappers yesterday with TimVB, all between 46 and 52 cm.

Had to work for them but looking forward to some shalowed fried panko crumbed fillets tonite.

 Hey folks, I dont post on here much anymore since I've been living overseas but I wanted to share this recent capture as it has been a goal of mine for awhile now and is a pretty monumental achievment.

I've been learning everything I could about Swordfishing since in the states with a plan to return to Perth with the confidence in technique to target them succesfully. Unfortunately however I have had limited opportunities to go as everytime I hop on someone elses boat out of Venice Louisiana they just want to chase yellowfin tuna. I own a 20' PangaMarine skiff (think southwind UB570) which I use for flyfishing for bulll reds here and so have been waiting for a good weather window to go and test my technique and spots. Luckily the wait gave me plenty of time to learn everything I could before hitting the water.

In late september my brother flew over and we had 2 good days of weather to head offshore (~1200' water depth) and try the daytime swordfish game. The second spot we tried (flagged as likely from studting a bathy chart) and we got wacked, when we got the bait back to surface it was clear it was a sword given the leader abrasion and slash through the rigged squid. Over the next two days we had 3 hits on bait and even one wack on the lead sinker (looks like someone hit it with an axe) but just couldnt convert it into a hookup.

Over the next few weeks i spoke to a few swordfish diehards to better learn how to get the hookup after a fish finds your bait (not an easy task!). Mid October a 2 day weather window opened up but I couldnt find anyone willing to go midweek so I took off on my lonesome into the deep blue yonder on a little boat.

1st drop and I was getting wacked straight away. Played cat and mouse with him for 15-20 minutes but couldnt get the hookup and eventually he moved on. Squid and leader was a mess when I got it back to surface. 

I setup again and dropped another fresh rigged squid down. Pretty soon I was seeing action again and tried enticing him for what seemed like forever until suddenly I came tight. He came to surface fairly easily and to be honest I didnt think it was a sword. When he saw the boat however and warmed up he went ballistic. After 2 awesome jumps and about an hour he went a huge dive down to 200+metres, just as he was slowing down the hooks pulled. I was devastated to have finally hooked my first sword (est. 250#) and lost him and was certain that was my one opportunity gone. You can see the footage of that fight here -

vimeo.com/143524162

After getting my sh%t togethor I reset and dropped down again. After 20 minutes I was hooked up again. Easy fight up once again until he saw the boat and took off across the surface and launched. Realized then he was a pretty good sword and I had no idea just how hard the fight would be.. Long story short, 3.5 hours later I got him boatside and had a shot with the gaff, a little scary and not easy by myself.

I eventually got him subdued and it then occured to me I was never going to get him in the boat by myself. After tying him to the side and towing him for a few miles I eventually came across another boat that helped me get him in.

Unfortunately the place I was staying didnt have scales to handle it. A few of the charter captains that saw it estimated around 350lbs. Short length / girth calculation pegged it a 360lb. The Louisiana state record is 320 so would have smashed it if I had weighed the bugger....... not bad solo from a 20' boat :-)

Still editing the footage of this second fish but I will get it up asap.

Good weather coming Monday so hoping to give it another crack. I'm returning home to Perth in january so will be spending as much time as I can trying to work out daytime / nighttime in Perth Canyon... I've definitely been bitten by the swordfish bug! Cant wait to get back in the Indian Ocean!!!

Cheers all

Having recently moved back to Perth and getting a week off R&R after having very little fishing and diving for the past 3 months if was good to get back into it and get some quality captures around the metro area this past week. my first day my brother Aron came up for the weekend and we went to have a crack at some sharks NOR, picked up 6 nice tailor on baits and lures and let a few more go and ive got into a very nice shark on the 50lb setpup. Absolutely killed my back cause im unfit and not used to it but 45 minutes later and some photos and away he went again, not bad for targetting some little ones with whole mullet to keep. Monday was out in the boat with Craig from Saltwater Charters for a crack at some seriola species. picked up a little yellowfin and a sambo on the troll and ive dropped a much larger Fin to pulled hooks. jigged for sambos for a bit but struggled to find any hungry before going to find some Kingys and picked up a tiny southern bluefin on the way there. i got to test out my new Eupro Shogun PE2 rod and 20lb Tasline on my certate 3012H with a few nice fish coming up before getting absolutely smoked across the shallows by a much better fish and finished the day off getting it handed to me again by a very very big sambo i had no chance in hell of stopping on the silly string. Tuesday was out of Rocko Cray diving and bagged out in a few hours between us and i almost looped a small kingfish with the cray loop, that would of gone nuts if i had managed to get it a couple more mill over the tail. Spent a few hours yesterday in the swan and got a couple of small flattys on SX40's but nothing of size. pretty good week off and im already looking forward to my next break and getting some more decent fish metro again.

 The windy conditions over the weekend and the unrelentless urge to wet a line, forced Gail and I onto the Swan to try our hand at Bream fishing.  We had done a fair amount of Bream (Kurper) angling off the boat back in South Africa and Gail and I both hold records for the Red Breast Tilapia - a Bream species - http://fisheagle.homestead.com/loskopfeb2009.html

Using the same tecnique, namely a sliding float method we were able to land a number of Bream and Yellowtail Grunter.  Nothing massive, but we enjoyed the outing and the opportunity to try some old methods on local waters. Enjoy the YouTube clip of the outing.

https://youtu.be/TRqcr3-nhNo

 Went diving with a mate off the southern end of Garden Island. First dive saw us each get 5 sized crays. I only saw a few kakkas on also. Crays well I  the reef system. Interestingly though, not all scampered away when we came rolling in. Depth was about 15.

Indecisions and different opinions saw us check the charts and dove a sounding about 600 meters west. Visibility was great but went murky into the dive. More crays on second dive but I had lost the knack of things. Chewed through the air a bit too. Much more kakkas and prawns on 2nd dive as a ratio of sized to u/size butaso more crays. Took me whole dive to get rest of quota.

Saw a nice KGW, mate saw some Boarfish and a small Blackarse. 

Weather is looking good most days this week but I should really clean and sort the shed, fix surfboards, and ofcourse do housework and work

 Hi Guys

Recently went to Broome for a quick fishing trip with some mates.

Even though we didnt get out for sailfish because of the wind we had a great few days hitting up the threadies and barra.